They\u2019re still number one in the 631.<\/p>\n
Rap pioneers JVC Force put the suburbs on the hip-hop map with the iconic anthem \u201cStrong Island\u201d in the late 1980s \u2014 and their funk-filled ode to Long Island has new life stretching all the way across the pond.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have come up to me and were telling me \u2018you do not know how much that song meant to us,\u201d member AJ Rok, who moved from Westchester to Islip <\/a>as a little kid, told The Post.<\/p>\n JVC Force at the Video Music Box Experience in Eisenhower Park in August. Courtesy of AJ Rok<\/p>\n Rok and partner B-Luv (pictured) recently reunited \u2014 nearly 37 years after \u201cStrong Island\u201d was released. Courtesy of AJ Rok<\/p>\n AJ Rok (left) and B-Luv (right pose with DJ Moe Love from Ultramagnetic MCs, who performed with the duo overseas. Instagram\/jvcforce<\/p>\n Rok and partner B-Luv recently reunited \u2014 nearly 37 years after \u201cStrong Island\u201d was released \u2014 and embarked on a fall mini-tour in Europe where fans are clamoring for old-school hip-hop.<\/p>\n \u201cLove has never ceased overseas. I probably do six [foreign] interviews a year,\u201d Rok said before boarding a flight to a recent JVC show in Amsterdam.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cStrong Island\u201d meaningfully changed things closer to home, however, as the group helped differentiate Long Island <\/a>from the city in a hallmark first for the Bronx-born genre.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople didn\u2019t really know there were rappers from Long Island at the time,\u201d said Rok.<\/p>\n Beating the boroughs<\/p>\n The city scene hadn\u2019t played nice with outsiders from the early 1980s on, according to Archie Snowden, a hip hop influence of the time who\u2019s now producing a documentary on LI rap history. <\/p>\n \u201cThe guys in the city, they went out of their way to block [Long Island artists] out,\u201d Snowden said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of those guys weren\u2019t even saying they were from Long Island. They were saying they were from Brooklyn and Queens; <\/a>otherwise, they weren\u2019t going to get any recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n Rakim was one of the first to boldly divide the two when the Wyandanch-born artist rapped that he was \u201crough enough to break New York from Long Island\u201d in the 1986 track \u201cMy Melody.\u201d<\/p>\n Public Enemy, whose core members Flava Flav and Chuck D bonded at Nassau County\u2019s <\/a>Adelphi University, also started coining the phrase and dropped it in the rap \u201cRebel Without a Pause\u201d a year later.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what we sampled,\u201d said Rok, whose real name is AJ Woodson.<\/p>\n B-Luv, Smooth B and Aj Rok pictured at Urban Matterz Festival in the Netherlands. Instagram\/jvcforce<\/p>\n DJ Moe Love, All City Steve from UltraCab Taxi Talk in London, B Luv and AJ Rok. Instagram\/jvcforce<\/p>\n \u201cPeople didn\u2019t really know Public Enemy was from Long Island at the time. When we did \u2018Strong Island,\u2019 it gave identity to those who came after us,\u201d he added of groups like De La Soul of Amityville.<\/p>\n Embracing their less gritty habitat proved to be the right move as the record was being spun tons at local college stations like Adelphi and Hofstra University.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n College radio was the place to be back in the day, as future game changers like Hempstead\u2019s Busta Rhymes and his group Leaders of the New School used to take calls from the studios, according to Rok.<\/p>\n Snowden said \u201cStrong Island\u201d was the catalyst that \u201cstarted to wake folks up in the music industry\u201d to the vast talents waiting for their moment just a few miles beyond the five boroughs.<\/p>\n